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drawstring beachcombing bag

**disclaimer: I am not paid to endorse any of the clothing or supplies in this story. I am only sharing my thoughts on what I think are great beach combing duds.

Beachcombers come in all sizes, shapes, philosophies, and goals. Finding the great items along the shore are, to some, an art; to others it is luck. Some people specialize in sea glass, while others only want shells or drift wood or pottery shards. We all have the same goal of finding something, but what we do with it can vary. A man in Pensacola, Florida catalogs and stores everything he finds in boxes in his garage. A lady in Sarasota picks up broken shells of all sizes and makes wonderful pieces of art with them. A family in California sells their findings on the internet for people to use for their crafts. I display some of what I find in my house and use the rest for crafts and jewelry.

Beachcombers, however, all have one thing in common: two hands. And when those two hands are full of great finds from the shoreline, it is a bit difficult to move on and continue combing the surroundings. As tacky as it may seem to some, many beachcombers carry a plastic grocery bag to the beach with them. These bags are rather large so they can hold a great amount of beach shells, glass and other findings. They’re also waterproof. We each have our way of doing things and our favorite containers to carry. Here are some ideas.

THINGS TO CARRY:

My favorite thing to carry and load up with beach finds is an 8”x10” drawstring bag made of quick-drying fabric. Instructions follow to make your own or you can order one from my Etsy store: Crafty Beachcomber. They’re on back order right now so please email me through my store for a custom order.

I have asked a few of my friends who are “professional beachcombers”, like me, what they carry when scavenging the beaches. Jody Diehl, who owns Beach Treasures and Treasure Beaches.com, has to travel a distance to the beach so she keeps things simple and lightweight. Jody says she mostly uses “her pockets but usually uses great big to-go cups or large baggies.” Check out her website to read her beachcombing adventures or find her on Facebook at One Shell at a Find.

Maria Conger, who lives on Mobile Bay, doesn’t have far to walk to her Bay beach but frequents the other Alabama Gulf Coast beaches. When asked how she carries her goodies, she replied, “We have used our sweatshirts for unexpected finds. Just roll it up with the goodies inside and carry by the sleeves. Plastic grocery bags, of course, because, they are light weight and plentiful. We have used plastic cups we found on the beach and my husband even dug a cup or two from a trash can. We washed them in the gulf of course. Today we are using plastic bags and small buckets recycled from Easter. The tricky part is where to put the delicate items like sand dollars. That is why we bring a plastic bag and a bucket. It is very hard to carry delicate items for a long time in your hand or pocket. I can’t count the number of times I have found crushed seashells during clothes washing. One time, while pottery hunting, my husband insisted on using a huge paint bucket. Of course, it got so heavy we couldn’t carry it all.”

Sea glass collector, Karen, who owns GlassBeachSeaGlass on Etsy, can usually be spotted filling an empty Thanksgiving Coffee bag with sea glass and beach rocks. She can get about three uses out of it before needing another, which is fine since it’s her favorite coffee brand. Karen says it fits perfectly in her hand and, since she collects smaller items, can fit a lot into it. “What’s hilarious is that the seagulls are always certain that the coffee smell is something they need. So if I dare walk away from that bag they pick it up and try to make off with it. I’ve had that happen twice. My entire day’s collection scattered once again all over the beach. I usually get that bag 3/4 of the way full and then it seems like that’s the time when I want to get back home. Also, I like the smell.”

THINGS TO WEAR

If you aren’t a “bag person” and like to make quick trips to the beach for salt-air therapy, shorts or a skort with cargo pockets are great. Regular pockets tend to be shallow and the more items you put into them, the greater chance you’ll lose something when you bend over to pick up the next cool find, or when you sit down on your beach chair or car seat. Cargo pockets are big, have 3 sides and a flap that snaps the pocket shut, holding your beachcombing booty inside.

My favorite clothes for beachcombing are cargo pocket skorts like the Rip Stop Skort from LL Bean. Lightweight, it is comfortable to wear on a hot day. There are other cargo pocket skorts around to try. Be sure to find one with large side pockets. My favorite has always been the cargo skort from Fresh Produce. They’ve changed their design this year with a smaller side pocket but if you have access to one of their outlet stores you may still find this great item with the larger pockets on the sale rack. The fabric dries quickly, too. But, any cargo skort will do.

My favorite beachcombing outfit. Note the large cargo pocket.

If shorts are your thing, I want to recommend Calvin Klein Jeans Utility Shorts. The style for shorts this summer (2014) is too short to include cargo pockets but the folks at Calvin Klein Jeans solved that by making perfect length cargo shorts that also roll up shorter and are secured with a button tab. They are really comfortable and look great on. The cargo pocket is deep. These come in a dark blue, orange and white.

There are plenty of other great beachcombing cargo-pocket bottoms but these are my favorites.

A long walk on the beach may force you to use both clothes with a deep pockets AND the drawstring bag or container of your choice. Nothing wrong with that; you’ll be able to collect more, and look fashionable doing so.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HOMEMADE BEACHCOMBING BAG:

Find a lightweight piece of waterproof or quick drying fabric

Cut it to 26” x 13”

Fold over a quarter inch on each end and sew a seam

Fold the whole fabric piece in half, inside-out, lengthwise and run a stitch on one side from the fold to the end. On the other side, run a stitch from the fold to 2” from the end. It would be great to reinforce the stitches with waterproof seam binding tape over the edges to keep them from fraying and keep the stitches from weakening

Fold over the top edges and run a stitch one inch from the top leaving the “rope holes” open on the one side.